I Just Like Rainbows

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Gay Pride: The Rainbow Flag

The rainbow flag, sometimes pride flag, LGBT pride flag or gay pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements in use since the 1970s. The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride in LGBT rights marches. It originated in California, but is now used worldwide. Designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the design has undergone several revisions to first remove then re-add colours due to widely available fabrics. As of 2008, the most common variant consists of six stripes, with the colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The flag is commonly flown horizontally, with the red stripe on top, as it would be in a natural rainbow.

Red = Life 

Orange = Healing 

Yellow = Sun 

 Green = Nature

Blue = Harmony 

Violet = Spirit

Pride Weekend Begins

Gay Pride Bunday

Happy Pride!!! I think my friend Michael and I are heading to the parade today - hopefully I'll have some pics to share with everyone later.




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Pride Caturday

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Pride Weekend

I'm hearing reports that they are PARTYING in the West Village tonight - inside and outside the historic Stonewall Inn.

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Show Your Pride

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Queens Gay Pride

The annual Queens Gay Pride parade and celebration was held this past Sunday - and as you can see, the streets (and the gay bars) of Jackson Heights were filled with eye candy.

But, alas, I was unable to attend - due to work obligations {sigh}


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Truthery

Gandalf = The Hotness

A young Gandalf the Grey (AKA Sir Ian McKellen) chillaxin' with a cup of tea back in the day (above); and leading the Manchester (U.K.) Pride Parade this past weekend (below).  Even after all these years, Sir Ian is still the Hottest Biatch on the planet.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." 

... Gandalf the Grey (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Happy Hump Day!

Here is my journey's end, here is my butt

And very sea-mark of my utmost sail. 

... William Shakespeare. Othello

Tom Colicchio To Ride On Bear Float For 2011 LA Pride

From Eater:

Chef and Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio is a big gay hypermasculine icon, especially popular with the bears, so much so that he's apparently agreed to ride on a bear float in next year's Los Angeles Pride parade, reports the Dallas Voice.

Colicchio told them, "I was on Andy Cohen's show on Bravo [Watch What Happens] and said I was mad at the bear community: The gay Pride parade was going on, and no one had asked me to be on a float." Soon thereafter, the show was flooded with phone calls, including the editor of A Bear's Life magazine who helped set it all up.

BTW - Colicchio is straight. Via Towleroad

Adorable Chicago Pride Picture

My dear friend Dan at 41NORTH87WEST recently attended the Pride celebration in his native Chicago, and shared some pictures he took while there.  You should check them all out, but the picture above - with the adorable kid marching with his doting Mami - seriously brought a tear to my eye.

I Missed Queens Gay Pride!

On my first full day as a resident of Astoria, Queens - they celebrated Gay Pride a few neighborhoods over in Jackson Heights.  Coincidence???

And at least one of the participants was A FAMILIAR FACE.  She certainly gets around...

Constance McMillen Named NYC Pride Parade Grand Marshall

Constance McMillen has been named one of the Grand Marshalls of the 2010 NYC Gay Pride March to be held on June 27th.  Lt. Dan Choi and Judy Sheppard will also be Grand Marshalls of the parade.

I cannot wait to applaud Constance - in person - for being such a brave kid.

Source (via Joe.My.God)

Gay Pride - Rio de Janeiro

According to Made In Brazil, over one million people packed Rio for Gay Pride this weekend - despite horrible weather.

If I could get my hands on some money I would take a long trip to Brazil and let the hot guys pamper me in EVERY way.

TRUE Christians

This billboard was spotted recently in San Diego (which just celebrated Gay Pride this past weekend). In my opinion, it represents what I always thought Christianity was - you know, "do unto others" and whatnot.

H/T to Good As You via Joe.My.God.

HAPPY PRIDE! Gay Bar Raided On Stonewall Anniversary

Fort Worth's Rainbow Lounge was raided by police on the EXACT 40th anniversary of the initial raid on the Stonewall Inn in NYC (June 28). Many of the Rainbow Lounge Patrons were rounded up and charged with "public intoxication" - and some experienced excessive force from police. From Daily Kos, a dancer from the bar recalls:

I was one of the dance entertainers last night at Rainbow Lounge. I was dancing on a box in the VIP lounge and was looking right at the first guy that was arrested. The male patron was standing at the bar doing nothing but having a having a drink and a fun time (like people do in bars) when an officer entered that section of the club and made a beeline straight towards him. The officer forcefully spun the man around, shoved him against the bar and placed plastic restraints on his wrists. The officer then marched the man out the club. The guy was stunned and obviously really scared.

I then noticed another officer in the VIP section and several other officers filtering into the club. I made the decision at that point to go ahead and get dressed in case they were going to start arresting everyone in the entire place.

When I got inside the dressing room there were other dancers already in there getting dressed. They were panicking and saying that this is not something they have ever had to deal dancing in Dallas. I got dressed and walked out the door and saw that several more officers had made their way into the club. I went into sort of a surreal haze at that moment. I was so disturbed and saddened because it occurred to me in that moment that being after midnight, it was actually the exact same day as the Stonewall Riots. I just couldn’t believe what was happening.

I was still standing near the entrance to the VIP lounge with a friend when an officer approached a man standing there. The man had water in his hand. The officer asked him how much he had had to drink and the man said that he didn’t have to answer that. The officer then said that he was going to arrest him for public intoxication. The man said,"You can’t do that I am just standing here right now drinking water." At the time the officer shoved the man over towards the wall near the dressing room and then back to the rear wall near the men’s restroom, then down onto the floor. Several other officers, made their way back there to hold that ONE MAN down on the ground as they placed restraints on him. At the time I noticed that all of them did not have FWPD uniforms on. Some of them were actually State Police.

There is now a Facebook Group dedicated to discussing the raid. Here is their group summary:

Last night around 1 a.m., on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the Fort Worth Police Department raided the Rainbow Lounge and began randomly handcuffing and arresting patrons and shoving anyone who dared to ask why. It was a sobering reminder that on this pinnacle date in the history of gay rights, we still have a very long way to go. I created this group to give folks a chance to discuss it, share stories, pictures, etc.

Apparently eighteen people were arrested and one was actually hospitalized. It's things like this that remind us that we still have a long ways to go toward equality.

The Diverse Banners of Pride

The NYC Pride March was fantastic! The weather was great, the crowds were upbeat, and the floats and marchers were fun and entertaining. Here are some of the many diverse groups that marched.

More Pride pictures to come ...

The Stonewall Riots: Eyewitness Accounts

Some eyewitnesses to history:

Edmund White is the author of A Boy's Own Story (1982) and The Farewell Symphony (1997), among other books and essays. He wrote a letter just a few days after the Stonewall Riots in 1969 to his friends, poet Alfred Corn and his wife Ann. Here is an excerpt:

As the Mafia owners were dragged out one by one and shoved into the wagon, the crowd would let out Bronx cheers and jeers and clapping. Someone shouted "Gay Power," others took up the cry--and then it dissolved into giggles. A few more gay prisoners--bartenders, hatcheck boys--a few more cheers, someone starts singing "We Shall Overcome"--and then they started camping on it. A drag queen is shoved into the wagon; she hits the cop over the head with her purse. The cop clubs her. Angry stirring in the crow. The cops, used to the cringing and disorganization of the gay crowds, snort off. But the crowd doesn't disperse. Everyone is restless, angry and high-spirited. No one has a slogan, no one even has an attitude, but something's brewing.

Read the entire letter, courtesy of OutHistory.Org HERE.


Lucien Truscott covered the Riots for The Village Voice (his coverage gets a snide critique in Edmund White's letter). Truscott asserts that "the gay community" didn't fight back on those hot summer nights back in 1969:

A prominent Stonewall myth holds that the riots were an uprising by the gay community against decades of oppression. This would be true if the “gay community” consisted of Stonewall patrons. The bar’s regulars, though, were mostly teenagers from Queens, Long Island and New Jersey, with a few young drag queens and homeless youths who squatted in abandoned tenements on the Lower East Side.

Read the entire New York Times article HERE.


Retired NYPD Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine still contends that the initial raid on the Stonewall Inn was "right". Read the article from The Advocate HERE.



Finally, hot Papi Raymond Castro (above) - now retired and living in Florida with his partner of 30 years - tells his story to MSNBC HERE.